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diff --git a/77258-h/77258-h.htm b/77258-h/77258-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5caf30e --- /dev/null +++ b/77258-h/77258-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2954 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <title> + Life of John Brown | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg"> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 0.25em; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +.center {text-align: center;} + +figcaption {font-weight: bold;} +figcaption p {margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: .2em; text-align: inherit;} + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; +padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; padding-left: .5em; +padding-right: .5em;} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} + +.ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } +.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } +.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } +.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp45 {width: 45%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp45 {width: 100%;} + +ins {text-decoration: none;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77258 ***</div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp45" id="cover" style="max-width: 100.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""> +</figure> + +<br> +<p class="ph2">LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 521</p> +<p class="ph3">Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius</p> + +<h1>Life of John Brown</h1> + +<p class="ph2">Michael Gold</p> +<br><br> +<p class="ph3">HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY</p> +<p class="ph3">GIRARD, KANSAS</p> +<br> +<p class="ph4">Copyright, 1924, +Haldeman-Julius Company.</p> + +<p class="ph4">PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="FOREWORD"> + FOREWORD. + </h2> +</div> + +<p>John Brown’s life is a grand, simple epic that +should inspire one to heroism. No one asks for +dates and minute details on hearing the life of +Jesus or Socrates. There are men who have +proved their superiority to the pettiness of life, +and who seem almost divine. John Brown is +one of them. I think he was almost our greatest +American. I know that he was the greatest man +the common people of America have yet produced.</p> + +<p>He did not become a President, a financier, a +great scientist or artist; he was a plain and +rather obscure farmer until his death. That +is his greatness. He had no great offices, no +recognition or applause of multitudes to spur +him on, to feed his vanity and self-righteousness. +He did his duty in silence; he was an +outlaw. Only after he had been hung like a +common murderer, and only after the Civil +War had come to fulfill his prophecies, was he +recognized as a great figure.</p> + +<p>But in his life he was a common man to the +end, a hard-working, honest, Puritan farmer +with a large family, a man worried with the details +of poverty, and obscure as ourselves. Now +we are taught as school-children that only those +who become Presidents and captains of finance +are the successful ones in our democracy. John +Brown proved that there is another form of +success, within the reach of everyone, and that +is to devote one’s life to a great and pure +cause.</p> + +<p>John Brown was hung as an outlaw; but he +was a success, as Jesus and Socrates were successes. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>Some day school-children will be taught +that his had been the only sort of success worth +striving for in his time. The rest was dross; +the personal success of the beetle that rolls +itself a huger ball of dung than its fellow-beetles, +and exults over it.</p> + +<p>John Brown is a legend; but I still see him +in the simple, obscure heroes who fight for +freedom today in America. That is why I am +telling his story. It is the story of thousands +of men living in America now, did we but know +it. John Brown is still in prison in America; +yes, and he has been hung and shot down a +hundred times since his first death. For his +soul is marching on; it is the soul of liberty +and justice, which cannot die, or be suppressed.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="LIFE_OF_JOHN_BROWN"> + LIFE OF JOHN BROWN + <br><br> + WHEN SLAVERY WAS RESPECTABLE + </h2> +</div> + +<p>To understand any of the outstanding men of +history one must also understand something of +their background. The Roman Emperor Marcus +Aurelius persecuted and burned the primitive +Christians; yet he is accounted one of the most +religious and humane of historical figures, and +his Meditations are commonly considered a +book of the gentlest and wisest counsel toward +the good life.</p> + +<p>You cannot understand this paradox unless +you know the history of the Roman state. And +you cannot understand John Brown unless you +understand the history of his times.</p> + +<p>John Brown, until the age of fifty, had lived +the peaceful, laborious life of a Yankee farmer +with a large family. He hated war, and was +almost a Quaker; had never handled fire-arms, +and was a man of deep and silent affections. +He was deeply religious, read the Bible daily; +Christianity imbued all the acts of his daily +existence.</p> + +<p>This man, nearing his sixtieth year, assembled +a group of young men with rifles and took +the field to wage guerrilla war on slavery. He +became a warrior, an outlaw. What drove him +to this desperate stand?</p> + +<p>I think the answer is: Respectability. There +is nothing more maddening to a man of deep +moral feeling than to find that slavery has +become respectable, while freedom is considered +the mad dream of a fanatic.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span></p> + +<p>The slavery of black men had become the +most respectable institution in America in John +Brown’s time. It had had a dark and bloody +history of a hundred years in which to become +firmly rooted into American life.</p> + +<p>There had been slavery in Europe for centuries +before the discovery of America—but it +was white slavery. Each feudal baron owned +hordes of serfs—white farmers—who were as +much a part of his land-holdings as his castles, +horses and ploughs.</p> + +<p>With the invention of printing, gunpowder +and machine production the system of feudalism +declined. The French Revolution helped +deal it a death blow. The last country where +this ancient slavery of white men was not dead +was in Russia; but African slavery, the slavery +of Negroes, who were heathens, and therefore +could morally be bought and sold by Christians, +had been reintroduced on the northern coast of +the Mediterranean by Moorish traders. In the +year 990 these Moors from the Barbary Coast +first reached the cities of Nigrita, and established +an uninterrupted exchange of Saracen +and European luxuries for black slaves.</p> + +<p>Columbus tried to introduce Indian slavery +into Europe but the church forbade it, for +Indians were accounted Christians when converted. +The unhappy Negroes were not considered +convertible; their slavery was sanctified +by the church. And for the next few centuries +the African slave-trade was the most +lucrative traffic pursued by mankind. Black +slaves were to be found in the whole vast area +of Spanish and Portuguese America, also in +Dutch and French Guinea and the West Indies. +It was black men who cleared the jungles, tilled +the fields, built the cities and roads and laid +down, in their sweat and blood, the foundations +of civilization in the New <ins id="World" title="Original has 'world'">World</ins>. Great +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>jealous and prosperous monopolies were formed +in this traffic of slaves; and its profits were +greedily shared by philosophers, statesmen and +kings.</p> + +<p>In 1776, the American colonies were inhabited +by two and a half million white persons, who +owned half a million slaves. Many of the most +rational and humane leaders of the Revolution +saw the inconsistency of slave-holders making +a revolution in the name of freedom. There +was some early agitation against slavery, but +the humanitarians were in a minority. Even +then slavery had become respectable and profitable. +It would have been easy and cheap to +have freed the slaves then. It would have been +the most practicable thing the young nation +could have done. Not a life would have been +lost; and the development of the country might +have been even more rapid. But it was not +done; such acts need more far-sightedness than +the average man possesses.</p> + +<p>Slavery grew by leaps and bounds, as the +country was growing.</p> + +<p>The slave trader, shrewd, intelligent and rich, +kidnapped young men and women in Africa and +did a huge business. His markets became the +feature of every Southern town. The planters +lolled at their ease, and devised ways and means +of forcing their slaves to breed more rapidly. +The slaves were treated as impersonally as +animals. Mothers were sold away from their +children, and husbands from their wives. Generations +of black men died in bondage, and left +their children only the sad inheritance of slavery.</p> + +<p>The South developed an aristocrat class of +indolent white men and women who looked +down on all work as ignominious, and who used +their minds, not in the arts or sciences, but to +find new moral justifications for slavery.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p> + +<p>Slavery was respectable. “It is an act of philanthropy +to keep the Negro here, as we keep +our children in subjection for their own good,” +said a Southern statesman. Slavery was moral. +Even most of the respectability of the North +enlisted in its defense. In 1826, Edward Everett, +the great Massachusetts statesman, said in Congress +that slavery was sanctioned by religion +and by the United States Constitution.</p> + +<p>The churches of almost every denomination +were solidly behind slavery. The Supreme +Court ruled that it was constitutional. A pro-slavery +President occupied the White House, +and Senator Sumner, a lonely abolitionist, was +beaten down with a loaded cane on the senate +floor because he dared say a brave word +against the nation’s crime.</p> + +<p>In 1838 William Lloyd Garrison founded the +Liberator, first of the abolitionist journals. He +said that “the constitution is a covenant with +death, and an agreement with hell,” and he +fought slavery with all his power. “Our country +is the world, our countrymen all mankind,” +was the slogan of his journal. Garrison was +beaten by a mob in a northern city for his +courage; and other abolitionists were tarred +and feathered, lynched, and attacked by mobs +of respectable northern merchants and church-goers, +much as pacifists were beaten by mobs +during the late war.</p> + +<p>Slavery was respectable. Negro field hands +sold for $1,000 each, and innocent black babies +were worth $100 each to the white master as +they suckled at a Negro mother’s breast.</p> + +<p>To attack slavery was to attack the constitution, +the church, the government, and the +institution of private property. To attack respectability +has always been the crime of the +saviours, and respectability is the cross on +which they are forever hung.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="HOW_JOHN_BROWN_BECAME_AN_ABOLITIONIST"> + HOW JOHN BROWN BECAME AN ABOLITIONIST + </h2> +</div> + +<p>In the pagan ages and in the more distant +days of savagery, men were individuals. They +had no social imagination. They could stand +by and see another man writhe in tortures, and +laugh at him. Civilization has been developing +social imagination; it has been breeding +more and more the type of human being who +feels the suffering and injustice of another as +his own.</p> + +<p>John Brown was perhaps born with this +strain in him. In 1857, when he had already +plunged into his life-work, and was in the thick +of bloody fights in Kansas, he sat down to write +a most charming and tender letter to a little +boy who was the son of one of his friends in +the east. Those who think of fighters like +John Brown as possessed by only a lust for +battle, ought to read this letter. It reveals +how soft was his heart under the grim mask of +the Kansas warrior.</p> + +<p>The letter is autobiographical. It tells how +John Brown first became acquainted with the +horrors of slavery, and what effect it had on +his imagination.</p> + +<p>This letter is so touching, and so remarkable +for the picture it gives of John Brown’s early +years, also for the picture of the man’s mature +character as revealed by his own words, that I +am tempted to give it in full. I shall give only +parts of it, however.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_LETTER_TO_MASTER_HENRY_L_STEARNS"> + THE LETTER TO MASTER HENRY L. STEARNS + </h2> +</div> + +<p>“My dear Young Friend:—I had not forgotten +my promise to write you; but my constant care +and anxiety have obliged me to put it off a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>long time. I do not flatter myself I can write +anything that will very much interest you; but +have concluded to send you a short story of a +certain boy of my acquaintance; and for convenience +and shortness of name, I will call him +John.</p> + +<p>“This story will be mainly a narration of +follies and errors, which I hope you may avoid; +but there is one thing connected with it, which +will be calculated to encourage any young +person to persevering effort, and that is the +degree of success in accomplishing his objects +which to a great extent marked the course of +this boy throughout my entire acquaintance +with him; notwithstanding his moderate capacity, +and still more moderate acquirements.</p> + +<p>“John was born May 9, 1800, at Torrington, +Connecticut; of poor and hard-working parents; +a descendant on the side of his father of one +of the company of the Mayflower who landed +at Plymouth, 1620. His mother was descended +from a man who came at an early period to +New England from Amsterdam, in Holland. +Both his father’s and his mother’s fathers +served in the war of the revolution; his father’s +father died in a barn at New York while in the +service, in 1776.</p> + +<p>“I cannot tell you of anything in the first +four years of John’s life worth mentioning save +that at an early age he was tempted by three +large brass pins belonging to a girl who lived +in the family; and stole them. In this he was +detected by his mother; and after having a full +day to think of the wrong, received from her +a thorough whipping.</p> + +<p>“When he was five years old his father moved +to Ohio, then a wilderness filled with wild +beasts and Indians. During the long journey +which was performed in part or mostly with an +ox-team, he was called on by turns to assist +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>a boy five years older, and learned to think +he could accomplish smart things in driving +the cows and riding the horses. Sometimes he +met with rattlesnakes which were very large, +and which some of the company generally managed +to kill.</p> + +<p>“After getting to Ohio he was for some time +rather afraid of the Indians, and of their rifles; +but this soon wore off, and he used to hang +about them quite as much as was consistent +with good manners, and learned a trifle of their +talk. His father at this time learned to dress +deer skin, and John, who was perhaps rather +observing, ever after remembered the entire +process of deer skin dressing, so that he could +at any time dress his own leather such as squirrel, +raccoon, cat, wolf or dog skins; and also +he learned to make whip lashes, which brought +him in some change at various times, and was +useful in many ways.</p> + +<p>“At six years old John began to be quite a +rambler in the new wild country, finding birds +and squirrels, and sometimes a wild turkey’s +nest. Once a poor Indian boy gave him a yellow +marble, the first he had ever seen. This +he thought a good deal of, and kept it a good +while; but at last he lost it one day. It took +years to heal the wound, and I think he cried +at times about it. About five months after +this he caught a young squirrel, tearing off +its tail in doing it; and getting severely bitten +at the same time himself. He however held on +to the little bob-tailed squirrel and finally got +him perfectly tamed, so that he almost idolized +his pet. This, too, he lost, by its wandering +away; and for a year or two John was in +mourning; and looking at all the squirrels he +could see to try and discover Bobtail, if possible. +He had also at one time become the +owner of a little ewe lamb which did finely +until it was about two-thirds grown, when it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>sickened and died. This brought another protracted +mourning season; not that he felt the +pecuniary loss so heavily, for that was never +his disposition; but so strong and earnest were +his attachments. It was a school of adversity +for John; you may laugh at all this, but they +were sore trials to him.</p> + +<p>“John was never quarrelsome; but was excessively +fond of the roughest and hardest kind +of play; and could never get enough of it. He +would always choose to stay at home and work +hard, rather than go to school. To be sent off +alone through the wilderness to very considerable +distances was particularly his delight; +and in this he was often indulged; so that by +the time he was twelve years old he was sent +off more than a hundred miles with companies +of cattle; and he would have thought his character +much injured had he been obliged to be +helped in such a job. This was a boyish feeling, +but characteristic, nevertheless.</p> + +<p>“When the war broke out with England in +1812 his father soon commenced furnishing the +troops with beef cattle, the collection and driving +of which afforded John some opportunity +for the chase, on foot, of wild steers and other +cattle through the woods. During this war he +had some chance to form his own boyish judgment +of men and measures; and the effect of +what he saw was to so far disgust him with +military affairs that he would neither train nor +drill, but got off by paying fines; and got +along like a Quaker until his age had finally +cleared him of military duty.</p> + +<p>“During the war with England a circumstance +<ins id="occurred" title="Original has 'occured'">occurred</ins> that in the end made him a most +determined Abolitionist and led him to swear +eternal war with slavery. John was stopping +for a short time with a very gentlemanly landlord, +since made a United States Marshal. This +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>man owned a slave boy near John’s age, a boy +very active, intelligent and full of good feeling +to whom John was under considerable obligation +for numerous little acts of kindness.</p> + +<p>“The Master made a great pet of John; +brought him to table with his finest company +and friends and called their attention to every +little smart thing he said or did, and to the +fact of his being more than a hundred miles +from home with a company of cattle alone; +while the Negro boy (who was fully if not more +than his equal) was badly clothed, poorly fed +and lodged in cold weather, and beaten before +John’s eyes with iron shovels or any other +thing that came first to hand.</p> + +<p>“This brought John to reflect on the wretched, +hopeless condition of fatherless and motherless +slave children; for such children have neither +fathers or mothers to protect and provide +for them.</p> + +<p>“He sometimes would raise the question in +his mind: Is God, then, their father?”</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="HOW_JOHN_BROWN_EDUCATED_HIMSELF"> + HOW JOHN BROWN EDUCATED HIMSELF + </h2> +</div> + +<p>There are other matters treated in this long +and charming letter, written by an outlaw 57 +years old, to a boy of twelve. One detail that +is important is the analysis of his own character. +John Brown says his father early made +him a sort of foreman in his tanning establishment, +and that though he got on in the most +friendly way with everyone, “the habit so early +formed of being obeyed rendered him in after +life too much disposed to speak in an imperious +or dictating way.” John Brown was ever humble, +and severely chastised his own faults, but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>this habit of being a leader served him in good +stead, and made him the born captain of forlorn +hopes he later became.</p> + +<p>Another detail that interests us is his account +of his early reading. Working-class Americans, +and they are the majority of the nation, do +not go to the high schools and universities. +Neither did John Brown. But they can read +history, as he did at ten years, and they can +study and make themselves proficient in some +field, as he made a surveyor of himself by home +study. He also read passionately, he says, the +lives of great, good and wise men; their sayings +and writings; the school of biography that +seems to have nurtured so many great men. +John Brown never went to school after his +childhood; but he became an expert surveyor, +he learned the fine points of cattle breeding and +tanning, he was a student of astronomy, he +knew the Bible almost by heart, he studied military +tactics later in life, he was familiar with +the lives and times of most of the great leaders +of mankind, and best of all, he knew how to +stir men to great deeds, and lead them in the +battle.</p> + +<p>Great men do not need to own a college +diploma; they teach themselves, they are taught +by Life.</p> + +<p>How meaningless college degrees would sound +if attached after the names of Brutus, Pericles, +Socrates, Caius Gracchus, Buddha, Jesus, Wat +Tyler, Jefferson, Danton, William Lloyd Garrison!</p> + +<p>As for instance: Jesus Christ, D.D.; Robert +Burns, M.A.; Victor Hugo, B.S.; John Brown, +Ph.D.! How superfluous the titles of man’s +universities, when Life has crowned the student +with real and greener laurels! Yes, there are +many things not taught in the colleges!</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_MOULDING_OF_JOHN_BROWN"> + THE MOULDING OF JOHN BROWN + </h2> +</div> + +<p>And so by his own pen, we have had illuminated +for us the life of John Brown up to his +twentieth year. We see him, a big, strong boy, +fond of hard work, capable in all he put his +hand to, a young man bred in the hard college +of life in an early pioneer settlement. He was +fond of reading good books, and improving his +mind; he was rather shy, and yet filled with +an extraordinary self-confidence, which made +him a born leader, one who could show the +way to men older than himself, and command +them, and himself, in the straight line of duty.</p> + +<p>The subsequent life of John Brown cannot be +understood unless one knows all the environmental +forces and the heredity that went to +mould him. John Brown, a Puritan in the +austerity of his manner of living, the narrow +yet burning reality of his vision, and the hardships +he later underwent, came of a family of +American pioneers. To John Brown life from +the outset meant incessant strife, first against +unconquered nature, then in the struggle for +a living, and finally in that effort to be a Samson +to the pro-slavery Philistines in which his +existence culminated.</p> + +<p>At twenty John Brown married Dianthe Lusk, +a plain but quiet and amiable girl, as deeply +religious as her young husband, and as ready +as he to assume all the serious burdens of life.</p> + +<p>He was working in his father’s tanning establishment +at this time, at Hudson, Ohio. But in +May, 1825, John Brown moved his family to +Richmond, near Meadville, Pennsylvania, the +first of his many moves for he was imbued with +a deep restlessness, the hunger of the pioneer +for virgin lands and new enterprises.</p> + +<p>Here, with his characteristic energy, he +cleared twenty-five acres of timber land, built +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>a fine tannery, sunk vats, and in a few months +had leather tanning in all of them. Like his +father, Owen Brown, John was of a marked +ethical and social nature. He proved of great +value to the new settlement at Richmond by +his devotion to the cause of religion and civil +order. He surveyed new roads, was instrumental +in building school houses, procuring +preachers, “and encouraging anything that +would have a moral tendency.” It became almost +a proverb in Richmond, so an early neighbor +records, to say of a progressive man that he +was “as enterprising and honest as John Brown, +and as useful to the county.”</p> + +<p>In Richmond the family dwelt for ten years. +John Brown raised corn, did his tanning, +brought the first blooded stock into the county, +and became the first postmaster. Here, also, at +Richmond, the first great grief came into John +Brown’s life, to school him in that stoicism that +later made him the hero of a great cause. A +four year old son died in 1831, and the next +year his wife, Dianthe, died after having lived +and worked beside him like a good, faithful +woman for twelve years, giving birth to seven +children in that time, five of whom grew to +vigorous manhood and womanhood.</p> + +<p>Nearly a year later John Brown was married +for the second time, to Mary Anne Day, daughter +of a blacksmith. She was then a large, +silent girl of sixteen, who had come to John +Brown’s home with an older sister to care for +his children after his wife’s death. He quickly +grew fond of the young pioneer girl; one day he +gave her a letter offering marriage. She was +so overcome that she dared not read it. Next +morning she found courage to do so, and when +she went down to the spring for water for the +house, he followed her and she gave him her +answer there.</p> + +<p>Mary Brown was the best wife a John Brown +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>could have found. She had great physical ruggedness, +and she bore for her husband thirteen +children, seven of whom died in childhood, +and two of whom were killed in early manhood +at Harper’s Ferry. She did more than her full +share of the arduous labor of a large pioneer +household, and she endured hardships like a +Spartan mother. She was strong; and she had +a noble and unflinching character. It was only +a heroic woman such as this who could have +been the wife of a hero; who could have given +husband and sons cheerfully to the cause of +abolition, and been so silent and brave even +after their death.</p> + +<p>John Brown worked hard; he had no vices, +he was honest and painstaking, but somehow +success in business always eluded him. This +was another of the griefs of his life. He blamed +himself for his failures, but it was really not +his fault. It requires a real worship of money +to make one a business success, and John Brown +never took money as seriously as it demands of +its lovers. After ten years in Pennsylvania, of +much hard work with little results, he moved +to Franklin Mills, in Ohio, where he entered +the tanning business with Zenas Kent, a well-to-do +business man of that town. Here he also +became involved in a land development scheme +that was ruined by a large corporation’s maneuvers. +He was so deeply involved in this and +other ventures that in the bad times of 1837 +he failed. In 1842 he was again compelled to +go through bankruptcy proceedings.</p> + +<p>In after years John Brown explained these +failures to his oldest son as the result of the +false doctrine of doing business on credit.</p> + +<p>“Instead of being thoroughly imbued with the +doctrine of pay as you go,” he wrote, “I started +out in life with the idea that nothing could be +done without capital, and that a poor man must +use his credit and borrow; and this pernicious +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>doctrine has been the rock on which I, as well +as many others, have split. The practical effect +of this false doctrine has been to keep me like +a toad under a harrow most of my business life. +Running into debt includes so much evil that +I hope all my children will shun it as they +would a pestilence.”</p> + +<p>John Brown never gave up in despair anything +he had attempted; his business failures +bruised him sorely, but he arose each time like +a rugged wrestler and began a new endeavor. +In 1839, at one of his darkest periods, he began +a sheep growing and wool marketing venture in +which he engaged for many years, going into +partnership with Simon Perkins, a wealthy +merchant of Akron, Ohio. This partnership was +the longest and final one of Brown’s business +career.</p> + +<p>So that is how one must think of Brown, too; +not only as the consecrated, almost inhuman +battler and martyr, but also as the sane, plodding, +patient farmer, tanner, surveyor, real +estate speculator, and practical shepherd. He +was a tall, spare, silent man, terribly pious, +terribly honest, a good neighbor and community +leader, and the father of a large family of sons +and daughters—a patriarch out of the Bible, +tending his flocks and gathering about him a +tribe of young and stalwart sons.</p> + +<p>He was a typical pioneer American of those +rough days in the settling of the middle west. +He had no time for frivolity, though there was +a grim humor in the man; he brought his +children up strictly, yet with a justice that +made them all love, revere and respect him +until the end; and he had his share of those +private sorrows that crush so many men; his +first beloved wife had died, with an infant +son; he had failed in business; and he had +lost by death no less than nine children, three +of whom perished in one month in those hard +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>surroundings, and one of whom, a little daughter, +was accidently scalded to death by an elder +sister. These deaths hurt John Brown cruelly, +for though stern and stoic, he was a fiercely +tender father; all his affections were fierce, +though inexpressible and deep, as a lion’s.</p> + +<p>“I seem to be struck almost dumb by the +dreadful news,” he wrote his family, when he +heard of this accident. “One more dear little +feeble child I am to meet no more till the dead, +small and great, shall stand before God. I +trust that none of you will feel disposed to +cast an unreasonable blame on my dear Ruth +on account of the dreadful trial we are called +to suffer. This is a bitter cup indeed; but +blessed be God; a brighter day shall dawn; +and let us not sorrow as they who have no +hope.”</p> + +<p>The Browns had made at least ten moves in +the years from 1830 to 1845, and John Brown +had engaged in no less than seven different +occupations. But always, under the business +man and farmer, there had been the solemn +philosopher brooding on God and the mystery +and terror of life; and always, under the sober +father and citizen, there had been planning +and brooding and suffering keenly the tender +humanitarian, the Christ-like martyr, the relentless +fighter who would finally pay with +his life to strike a blow at Slavery, “that sum +of all villainies.”</p> + +<p>In this patriarchal farmer of the middle +west, Freedom was forging and sharpening a +terrible weapon that was some day to be turned +against Tyranny. Quietly, in peaceful surroundings +the work was being done; no one +knew the fire in this man, least of all himself.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_GROWTH_OF_AN_ABOLITIONIST"> + THE GROWTH OF AN ABOLITIONIST + </h2> +</div> + +<p>For though John Brown had always been an +abolitionist, though he had learned from his +father, and from his own experiences to hate +slavery and its manifold brutalities, it was not +until his <ins id="thirty-fifth" title="Original has 'thirty-fith'">thirty-fifth</ins> year that John Brown +showed any more active hatred of it than did +hundreds of Ohio farmers around him. Like +them, he aided when he could, in the work of +the Underground Railroad. Thousands of free +Negroes and white abolitionists were engaged +in this work of passing fugitive slaves from +the South up over the Canadian line, where +they were being restored to manhood under +the flag of monarchism.</p> + +<p>But John Brown, in 1834, began thinking +that education of the Negroes might be an important +way toward the solution of their problems. +He formed plans of starting a school +for them. He and his family at this time, +though his wool-business was going comfortably, +lived in extreme frugality, for they had +agreed to save all they could toward the establishment +of some such school. For years John +Brown dreamed of such ventures as these; and +he read all the journals of the small abolitionist +groups, and met many of the leaders. He +always spoke against slavery in churches or +political meetings where he happened to be; +and he made friends with many Negroes, and +showed a deep interest in all their problems. +But not yet had he formed any of those belligerent +plans that later were his whole life. +He still believed that abolition might be effected +by education and peaceful agitation.</p> + +<p>Events were piling up too rapidly against +such a view, however. The South grew more +aggressive every day. The slave system seemed +to carry everything before it. It had broken +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>the agreement of 1820 by extending slavery +above the Mason and Dixon line into Missouri. +It had forced the war against Mexico, and had +carved out huge new tracts for slavery. It +dominated the government of the United States. +All of the Presidents were pro-slavery, or they +could not hope for office. Congress was pro-slavery, +and the Senate, too.</p> + +<p>And it was not only in the South that the +life of an abolitionist was worth little more +than a pinch of snuff. The slavery venom had +crept into the North, for powerful economic +reasons. The Northern merchants and manufacturers +made their profits by selling machinery, +and the goods made by machinery, to +the agricultural, cotton-raising South. And +the South threatened to secede from the union, +or at the least, to force a low tariff on imports, +and buy its goods in Europe, if the +abolitionists were not curbed.</p> + +<p>There were not many of these abolitionists; +but they were outspoken, intense, and made +themselves heard at all costs. They paid a +heavy price for this courage. They were persecuted, +tarred and feathered, and in many +cases lynched by the Northern mobs.</p> + +<p>Then the Southern slave system seemed to +have reached a triumphant climax in two +events: the first, the passing of the Fugitive +Slave Law, in 1851, and the other, the battle +over the admission of Kansas as free soil or +slave territory.</p> + +<p>The fugitive slave law incensed John Brown +to fury, as it did every other abolitionist. It +was a federal law forced by the South which +forced the state officials of every Northern +state, however much they might hate slavery, +to join in the hunt for runaway slaves and +their helpers.</p> + +<p>A United States sloop was sent to bring back +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>a slave who had fled to Boston. The abolitionists +tried to rescue him, but were foiled, with +two men killed. Scenes such as these marked, +everywhere in the North, the enforcement of +the law. Abolitionists were arrested in communities +where <ins id="every_one" title="Original has 'everyone'">every one</ins> of their neighbors +was also anti-slavery. Slaves, who had been +freemen for years and years in the North, were +captured and dragged back to bondage by government +officials.</p> + +<p>The abolitionists became more fiery in their +desperation. Many of them, like Garrison, began +preaching that the North set up a government +of its own: “No Union With Slave-holders!” +was the slogan.</p> + +<p>And the Kansas affair heaped coal on this +fire. Under the Missouri Compromise, both +North and South had agreed to restrict slavery +within the states already burdened with it; +they had agreed also, that the citizens of a new +territory could decide whether or not they +wanted slavery or freedom, and could vote +their choice when the territory was admitted +to the union. In other words, both sides would +keep their hands off new territory; and the +federal government would not interfere.</p> + +<p>Kansas was such a territory; it was being +rapidly settled, and in a few years was to +come up for admission as a state.</p> + +<p>And what was happening was that the South +was flooding this territory with spurious settlers; +idle, whiskey-drinking ruffians armed +with shotguns and revolvers, who were intimidating +the Northern settlers who had +come, and were stealing the elections from +them, by force of arms.</p> + +<p>The South was openly breaking its agreement +with the north; it was openly declaring +its intent to make Kansas another addition +to the slave states.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span></p> + +<p>To the abolitionists in the North this seemed +like the last straw. The South was at its +flood-tide of domination; it controlled everything +in the American union; and now it was +moving forward to make its domination +permanent by any means; even by the means +of murder and intimidation.</p> + +<p>Reports of assassinations, whippings, and the +burning down of Northern settlers’ cabins came +every week from Kansas. The abolitionists +began raising emigrant companies of Northerners +who would go to Kansas to vote for +freedom, even though the South sent its cannon +against them.</p> + +<p>The Brown family had by now moved to +North Elba, New York, a little Adirondack +colony of fugitive Negroes who had settled on +the lands owned by Gerrit Smith, a wealthy +and sincere abolitionist. John Brown had been +of much practical service to the Negroes there; +but he and his sons, like every other foe of +slavery, were deeply shaken by the events in +Kansas.</p> + +<p>It seemed horrible to everyone, that after +twenty years of bitter agitation, slavery was +not waning, but was stronger than ever—indeed, +was threatening to swallow up even the +North.</p> + +<p>Strong men were needed in Kansas; and so +John Brown’s sons went there. They were +men of peace: they went there as bona fide +settlers, to take up claims, and to cast their +vote, when the time came, for freedom. But in +two months they were writing letters to North +Elba asking their father to send them all the +rifles he could collect.</p> + +<p>“We have seen some of the curses of slavery, +and they are many,” wrote one of the sons in +the very first letter home. “The boys have all +their feelings worked up, and are ready to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>fight. Send us arms; we need them more than +we do bread.”</p> + +<p>John Brown collected the arms; and what +was more, he delivered them with his own +hands. He wound up his business affairs, left +his strong, patient wife in charge of the North +Elba farm, and went to join his sons in Kansas. +The curtain was now rising in the first +act of the universal drama called John Brown. +The man of God, the tender friend of little +slave children, and old, tortured slave mammies, +the man of the plough and the counter, the +patriarch and citizen was at last ready to become +Captain John Brown of <ins id="Osawatomie1" title="Original has 'Osawotamie'">Osawatomie</ins>; +John Brown, the outlaw, the warrior, the soldier +of freedom.</p> + +<p>At the mere mention of his name Border +Ruffians and swashbuckling adherents of +slavery were soon to tremble and even fly, +as though a devil were behind. And he was +bowed with cares and rapidly turning gray; +and he had never handled fire-arms; and he +was at the age when other men begin to talk +of retiring from business and life, when they +long for peace and reflection, in some quiet +country scene, away from the world and its +problems.</p> + +<p>He was fifty-five years old.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SITUATION_IN_KANSAS"> + THE SITUATION IN KANSAS + </h2> +</div> + +<p>As John Brown left for Kansas, he turned to +his wife and the remaining members of his +family and said: “If it is so painful for us to +part with the hope of meeting again, how must +it be with the poor slaves, who have no hope?”</p> + +<p>John Brown was always sanguine in his ventures; +but the events before him would have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>tried the hope of a superman; they were to be +bloody, exacting, terrible. It was what he +needed, however, for John Brown went to Kansas +with a greater project in his mind, the +attack on Virginia and the South, and Kansas +was to be for him the rough, harsh school in +which he could train himself for that supreme +effort.</p> + +<p>With his youngest son, Oliver, then about +eighteen years old, and a son-in-law, Henry +Thompson, John Brown left Chicago in August. +The party had a heavily loaded wagon drawn +by a “nice, stout young horse,” that was +stricken with distemper when they reached +Missouri, and could barely drag himself along. +Their progress was therefore slow; a scant +seven or eight miles a day. But it gave them +an opportunity to see and hear things in Missouri, +then fiercely pro-slavery, and the reservoir +from which were drawn most of the Border +<ins id="Ruffians" title="Original has 'Ruffins'">Ruffians</ins> who were raiding Kansas, and trying +to force it into the phalanx of slavery states.</p> + +<p>Companies of armed men were constantly +passing and re-passing on the route to Kansas, +and they were continually boasting “of what +deeds of patriotism and chivalry they had performed +there, and of the still more mighty +deeds they were yet to do.” As Brown wrote +home in a letter, “No man of them would +blush when telling of their cruel treading down +and terrifying of defenceless Free State men; +seemed to take peculiar satisfaction in telling +of the fine horses and mules they had killed +in their numerous expeditions against the +damned Abolitionists.”</p> + +<p>John Brown was roused by all this; already +he was changing from the peaceful patriarch to +the fearless warrior in the field. One incident +illustrates this. When the little party reached +the Missouri River at Brunswick, Missouri, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>they sat themselves down to wait for the ferry. +There came to them an old man, frankly Missourian, +frankly inquisitive after the manner +of the frontier. “Where are you going?” he +asked. “To Kansas,” replied John Brown. +“Where from?” asked the old man. “From New +York,” answered John Brown.</p> + +<p>“You won’t live to get there,” the old Missourian +said, grimly.</p> + +<p>“We are prepared,” John Brown answered, +“not to die alone.” Before that spirit and that +eagle eye the old Missourian quailed; he turned +and left.</p> + +<p>It was in October, after an arduous trip, that +John Brown and his party reached the family +settlement at <ins id="Osawatomie2" title="Original has 'Osawotamie'">Osawatomie</ins>. They arrived +weary and all but destitute, with about sixty +cents between them. And they found the settlement +in great distress; all of the Browns, +except the wife of John, Jr., were completely +prostrated with fever and ague, gotten from +the rough conditions. They were living in a +tent exposed to the chill winds, and were +shivering over little fires on the bare ground. +All the food left was a small supply of milk +from their cows, some corn and a few potatoes. +It was an unusually cold winter that year; on +October 26 John Brown saw the hardest freezing +he had ever witnessed south of his bleak +farm-house in the Adirondacks; and all the +Kansas pioneers suffered in it as did the +Browns.</p> + +<p>Nobody in Kansas that first winter knew +what comforts were. While the Browns paid +the penalty for living on low ground in a +ravine and in tents, their bitter experience with +sickness and hunger was not as bad as that of +many other Northern families. Starvation and +death looked in at many a door where parents +lay helpless, while famished children crawled +about the dirt floors crying for food, and shrieking +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>with fear if any footstep approached, lest +the comer be a Border Ruffian, (as the Southerners +were called) instead of a friend. For +pure misery and heart-breaking suffering these +pioneer tales of Kansas are not surpassed by +any in the whole history of the winning of +the West.</p> + +<p>But old John Brown was indomitable; he put +new life and energy into his six sons; by November +two shanties were well advanced, and +the food problem had been lightened. They +were getting into good shape for the winter, +and preparing to take up their share in the +settling of Kansas, when the hot breath of +war scorched all these plans, as it did many +another Northern settler’s.</p> + +<p>There would be little time for growing corn +for the Browns thereafter, or for the other +settlers; the slavery question demanded an +answer first.</p> + +<p>One dread that had worried the Browns before +leaving home proved unnecessary. It was +their fear of the Indians. The Browns were +terrified when the first big band of Sacs and +Foxes in war-paint surrounded their tent, +whooping and yelling, but they had the good +sense to ground their arms, and the Indians +did likewise. Thereafter both sides were great +friends. John, Jr., went often to visit their old +chief; once, when in the following summer, the +Indians came to call again, they were “fought” +with gifts of melons and green corn. “That,” +said Jason Brown, “was the nicest party I +ever saw.”</p> + +<p>John Brown, Jr., used to ask the old chief +questions, as, “Why do you Sacs and Foxes not +build houses and barns like the Ottawas and +the Chippewas? Why do you not have schools +and churches like the Delawares and Shawnees? +Why do you have no preachers and teachers?” +And the chief replied in a staccato which summed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>up wonderfully the bitter, century-long experience +of his people: “We want no houses +and barns. We want no schools and churches. +We want no preachers and teachers. We bad +enough now.”</p> + +<p>No, the Indians were friends. The men really +to be feared were not long in putting in their +appearance. One night six or seven heavily-armed +Missourians rode up to the door, and +asked whether any stray cattle had been seen. +The Browns replied in the negative; and then, +as newcomers, they were asked, in the border +slang, how they were “on the goose.”</p> + +<p>“We are Free State,” was the answer, “and +what is more, we are Abolitionists.”</p> + +<p>The men rode away, but from that moment +the Browns were marked for destruction. They +did not shrink from danger, however. They +nailed their flag to the mast; armed themselves, +and plunged into the thick of all the political +battles then raging. In a short time their +settlement was to become known as a center of +fearless, and if necessary, violent resistance +to all who wished to see human slavery introduced +into the Territory. John Brown’s life +work had begun.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_BORDER_RUFFIANS_HOLD_AN_ELECTION"> + THE BORDER RUFFIANS HOLD AN ELECTION + </h2> +</div> + +<p>No fair-minded reader of history can doubt, +in glancing over the records of that time, that +the South took the first bloody and brutal offensive +in their attempt to force slavery on +Kansas. Later, the Free State men from the +north, under leaders like John Brown, General +Lane and Captain James Montgomery, took up +arms, too, and defended themselves bravely; +but at first, they were victims of the South’s +determination to carry its point.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p> + +<p>The Southerners began the attack by stealing +the elections for the Territorial legislature. +Thousands of Missourians, on horseback and +in wagons, with guns, bowie-knives, revolvers +and plenty of whisky, poured over the line in +November, 1854, and encamped near the polling +places. The ballot boxes were extravagantly, +even humorously, stuffed; the elections were +carried for the South. There was nothing concealed +about the affair; in fact, the Missouri +newspapers had gaily whipped up recruits for +the raid.</p> + +<p>Many of these men, Border Ruffians, as the +North called them, were hired for the work. +Others came for the fun; others because they +hated Yankees; others because they were devout +believers in Slavery.</p> + +<p>“They wore the most savage looks and gave +utterance to the most horrible imprecations and +blasphemies,” said Thomas Gladstone, a relative +of the great statesman of that name, who +was in Kansas at the time. “In groups of +drunken, bellowing, blood-thirsty demons, +armed to the teeth, they crowded about the +bars and shouted for drink, or made the night +hideous with noise on the streets.”</p> + +<p>Their fraudulent Pawnee legislature convened +and passed a code of punishments for Free +State men. Under the code, no one opposed to +slavery in any manner could serve on a jury, +or hold any office in Kansas.</p> + +<p>Death itself was the penalty for advising +slaves to rebel, or even supplying them with +literature that would have that effect.</p> + +<p>The mere voicing of a belief that slavery was +illegal in Kansas was made a grave crime. Any +person who said in public that slavery was +wrong, or any person who even “introduced +into the Territory, any book, paper, magazine, +pamphlet or circular,”—saying this, was to be +punished by imprisonment at hard labor for +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>a term of not less than five years.</p> + +<p>This notorious Clause 12 was obviously aimed +at the New York Tribune and other anti-slavery +journals, and was meant to shut off every +whisper of free speech. And it did not work.</p> + +<p>For the Free State settlers would not recognize +the legality of the Legislature, and held +an election of their own. And so there were +two legislatures in Kansas Territory, two governors +and governments. All the fighting that +followed centered about this dualism, and about +the mad, desperate butcheries and burnings begun +by the Southerners, when they saw they +could not cow the Northerners into submission.</p> + +<p>President Pierce, who was pro-slavery, sent a +message to Congress in which he sided with +the fraudulent legislature and its code, declaring +it legal, and threatening the Free State +men, whom he called traitors, insurrectionists, +and seditionists against the United States government.</p> + +<p>In all the Kansas conflict, he threw federal +troops and federal politicians against the Free +State men. The South rejoiced at his stand, +but the Free State men went on with their +work. And John Brown and his sons took a +leading position in the fight.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SACK_OF_LAWRENCE"> + THE SACK OF LAWRENCE + </h2> +</div> + +<p>“Yet we will continue to tar and feather, +drown, lynch and hang every white-livered +abolitionist who dares to pollute our soil,” said +a flamboyant editorial in the Squatter Sovereign, +a pro-slavery paper published at Atchison, +Kansas, a Border Ruffian stronghold.</p> + +<p>The Slaveryites lived up to this promise. The +Free State men at this time had not begun +to arm, but doggedly and quietly went about +organizing their own government at Topeka. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>Their actions infuriated the Southerners. Now +began the long list of crimes that made the soil +of Kansas reek with blood.</p> + +<p>It would be impossible to give a full record +here of all those crimes. The least that happened +was the destruction of newspapers that +protested against Southern injustice, such as +the Parkville, Missouri, Luminary, which was +burned down, the machinery thrown in the +river, and the editors threatened with a similar +fate if they indulged in further free speech.</p> + +<p>There were hundreds of abolitionists murdered +in Kansas; hundreds of their wives and +children were gibed at and threatened and terrified; +hundreds of their cabins were burnt +down, and thousands of head of cattle stolen.</p> + +<p>One of the murders was the killing of Samuel +Collins, owner of a saw-mill near Atchison, by +Patrick Laughlin, a pro-slavery man. No effort +was made to punish him by the authorities. +But something was done by them in another +case. Charles Dow, a young Free State man +from Ohio, was cruelly shot down from behind +by Franklin Coleman, a pro-slavery settler from +Virginia.</p> + +<p>What the authorities did in this case was +to arrest Jacob Branson, with whom the dead +man had lived. A pro-slavery sheriff charged +Branson with having made threats to revenge +his friend. Branson was rescued by a group +of his friends with rifles, and taken to Lawrence +for protection, Lawrence being entirely +settled by the Free State men.</p> + +<p>The Sheriff called on the Governor, and the +Governor called on the militia, and with the +aid of Missouri citizens, about twelve hundred +armed men marched on Lawrence, to “put +down the rebellion.”</p> + +<p>The men of Lawrence sent out a call to all +Northerners; and John Brown and his men +were among those who responded. There were +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>five hundred settlers in Lawrence, and they +feverishly fortified the town with embankments; +but the whole affair ended by a compromise; +there was no fighting; only two men +were killed in a light skirmish.</p> + +<p>The Southerners left, weak with all the +whisky they had drunk on the expedition, according +to reliable observers, and angered that +they had not been given the chance to burn +Lawrence down.</p> + +<p>For Lawrence was a sore spot to the pro-slavery +men. It was the largest Free State +town in Kansas, and the center of all the +political activities of that group. It <ins id="published" title="Original has 'publishe'">published</ins> +a newspaper, and its Free State Hotel was the +headquarters of the Northerner’s government.</p> + +<p>There were other murders, despite the treaty +signed at this time. And then in February, +as Free State men were holding another of +their elections, they were assaulted at Leavenworth, +and many of them forced to flee to +Lawrence.</p> + +<p>One of the leaders of the Free State men, +as he was returning from Leavenworth after +the election, was captured by a company of +Border Ruffian militia. Wounded and defenceless +though he was, they literally hacked the +unfortunate foe of slavery into pieces with +their hatchets and knives. Not an effort was +made to punish these murderers, though their +names were known by everyone. Some of the +slavery journals even praised the deed, and +called for more. Said the Kansas Pioneer of +Kickapoo:</p> + +<p>“Sound the bugle of war over the length +and breadth of the land, and leave not an +Abolitionist in the Territory to relate their +treacherous and contaminating deeds. Strike +your piercing rifle balls and your glittering +steel to their black and poisonous hearts.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p> + +<p>And in May of that year, after further alarms +and disturbances, Sheriff Jones returned with +an army of 750 “swearing, whisky-drinking ruffians,” +armed with rifles, and even two pieces +of artillery. This time the Free State men +were unprepared. John Brown was not there, +nor any other real leader. The Free State +men still believed in peace, and legality. And +they saw their Free State Hotel go up in +flames, their newspaper plant destroyed, and +an orgy of drunken destruction let loose among +their homes.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Let Yankees tremble, Abolitionists fall,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our Motto is, Give Southern Rights to All.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>This was the inscription on one of the banners +of the invading army. Lawrence was the +first city to receive these rights. Thereafter +Free State men knew what to expect; they began +forming companies of riflemen and guerrilla +fighters to protect their communities +against Southern rights.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_LIBERTY_GUARDS"> + THE LIBERTY GUARDS + </h2> +</div> + +<p>One of these companies was the Liberty +Guards, as commander of which John Brown +first received his historic title of Captain. Besides +four of Brown’s stalwart sons, there were +fourteen other Free State settlers in the company, +and they were present at the first attempted +raid on Lawrence, which had resulted +in a compromise and an abortive “treaty.”</p> + +<p>Captain John Brown had gathered his men, +and was on the way to Lawrence for the second +time when they were informed by a messenger +that Lawrence had already been destroyed. The +Border Ruffians had captured the town without +meeting any resistance, and had razed it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>to the ground, the breathless courier reported. +This startling news was received in a bitter +silence by the little company. They pushed on, +nevertheless, and encamped near Prairie City, +hearing from passing stragglers further reports +of burnings, killings and drunken threats of +the Southern invaders.</p> + +<p>It was a period of great excitement. The +Kansans felt as if war had commenced in earnest +on them, and that they were to be wiped +out. Some of the men who lived on the <ins id="Pottawatomie" title="Original has 'Pottawotamie'">Pottawatomie</ins> +Creek, near Dutch’s Crossing, heard +reports that their women had been threatened +by a group of the toughest pro-slavery ruffians +who lived there.</p> + +<p>“We expect to be butchered, every Free State +settler in our region,” one of these men told +John Brown.</p> + +<p>Here was a story John Brown heard a few +days before from the lips of a pretty young +girl named Mary Grant, a settler’s daughter +in the region:</p> + +<p>“Dutch Bill arrived at our house, horribly +drunk, with a whisky bottle with a corncob +stopper, and an immense butcher knife in his +belt. Mr. Grant, my father, was sick in bed, +but when they told him that Bill Sherman was +coming, he had a <ins id="shotgun" title="Original has 'shot gun'">shotgun</ins> put by his side. +‘Old woman,’ said the ruffian to my mother, +‘you and I are pretty good friends, but damn +your daughter, I’ll drink her heart’s blood.’ +My little brother Charley succeeded in cajoling +the drunken man away.”</p> + +<p>An old settler named Morse was hung and +let down again by this same group of ruffians. +Then they threatened to kill him with an axe, +but his little boys set up a terrible wailing, and +begged for his life. The ruffians spared him, +but gave him until sundown to leave the community. +He wandered in the brush for two +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>or three days with his children, frightened to +death, and finally died of the excitement.</p> + +<p>There were other such tales, including one +horrible story of a similar attack on a woman +in childbirth. The ruffians had also put up +a notice, advising every Free State settler to +leave the community in thirty days or have +his throat cut.</p> + +<p>John Brown and his men discussed this matter, +and grimly decided to “do something to +show these barbarians we have some rights.” +They moved down that night on the Pottawatomie, +and calling out the five men who had +done most of the killing, threatening, and burning +down of houses in the region, executed +them as a measure of self-defense.</p> + +<p>It was a bloody, stern act, but it proceeded +out of the same inflamed spirit with which +the miners at Herrin recently shot down the +armed strikebreakers who had been brought +into their section. Many, including some sympathetic +historians like Oswald Garrison Villard, +have condemned this brutal deed, and have +called it a stain on John Brown’s life. Murder +is murder, and it cannot be defended on ethical +or logical grounds. But when a thug assails +one with a gun, or threatens one’s wife and +children, is one to practice non-resistance on +him? Is his life more valuable than one’s own? +In such moments men do not think, they act +as nature tells them to; even a Villard would +refuse to yield up his life to a thug; he would +forget logic and ethics, and defend himself. +And that was what John Brown did; his act +was a stern and immediate answer to the long-continued +murders and threats against the +Free State men of Kansas. It shook the Territory +to its foundations, and it made of John +Brown a hunted outlaw. Thereafter he grew +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>no more corn and built no more cabins for +his family; he was a guerrilla captain in the +field.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="AFTER_POTTAWATOMIE"> + AFTER POTTAWATOMIE + </h2> +</div> + +<p>John Brown, Jr., and Jason Brown, two of +the fighter’s sons, were captured by Missourians +and suffered incredible tortures after the Pottawatomie +affair. Both men were burning +with fever, but they were dragged at the ends +of ropes for two or three days, beaten, hung +up and then let down, and then chained to oxcarts +in the wind and rain. John Jr., always +of a nervous temperament, went temporarily +insane under this treatment, but his captors +had no mercy. Though he shrieked wildly, and +though his brother Jason begged that the +Southerns have pity, their hearts were hard as +flint.</p> + +<p>The following scene is described by Jason:</p> + +<p>“Captain Wood said to me: ‘Keep that man +still.’ ‘I can’t keep an insane man still,’ said +I. ‘He is no more insane than you are. If +you don’t keep him still, we’ll do it for you.’ +I tried my best, but John had not a glimmer +of reason and could not understand anything. +He went on yelling. Three troopers came in. +One struck him a terrible blow on the jaw +with his fist, throwing him on his side. A +second knelt on him and pounded him with +his fist. The third stood off and kicked him +with all his force in the back of the neck. +‘Don’t kill a crazy man!’ cried I. ‘No more +crazy than you are, but we’ll fetch it out of +him.’ After that John lay unconscious for +three or four hours. We camped about one +and a half miles southeast of the Adairs. There +we stayed about two weeks. Then we were +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>ordered to move again. They drove us on +foot, all the prisoners, chained two and two. +At Ottawa ford young Kilbourne dropped of a +sun-stroke.”</p> + +<p>The men were later released, for they had +done nothing that could be prosecuted in the +court where the pro-slavery government +“troops” had driven them. This was the sort +of thing John Brown was fighting; it was life +and death, and no mercy could be expected +from the Southerners. Mr. Villard and other +timorous friends of John Brown do not seem +to understand the nature of the battle; and +they do not understand what giant faith and +courage it must have taken for an old farmer +of fifty-five to continue fighting in such an +atmosphere.</p> + +<p>John Brown did not flinch. Another son, +Frederick, was shot down in cold blood on +the steps of the family home at Osawatomie, +but the old fighter, shedding a silent tear for +the loss, for he deeply loved his children, went +on his stern path.</p> + +<p>The spuriously-elected slavery governor offered +a reward of $3,000 for John Brown, and +the President of the United States a reward +of $250. Federal troops scoured the territory +for him. For months he and his men slept +out in the fields, flitting from place to place, +and fighting in many battles.</p> + +<p>With only nine men he fought off a troop +of twenty-three Southerners at the “battle of +Black Jack,” and forced them to surrender. +In August, 250 men moved on Osawatomie, +to destroy it as they had destroyed Lawrence. +John Brown gathered about forty men to resist +the Southerners, and a hot battle was +fought, in which, of course, Brown had to +retreat. The town was thoroughly wiped out, +and also granted “Southern rights.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> + +<p>There were many other skirmishes; the +name of Captain John Brown, old Brown of +Osawatomie, became a legend in Kansas. He +became a sort of Pancho Villa figure to the +South; a hundred times he was reported dead +or captured; a hundred times he was blamed +for wild deeds he had never done.</p> + +<p>Here are two contemporary pictures of John +Brown in the field. The first is written by +August Bondi, a brave and able young Austrian +Jew, who put himself under Brown’s +leadership after the Pottawatomie affair:</p> + +<p>“We stayed here up to the morning of Sunday, +June 1st, and during those few days I +fully succeeded in understanding the exalted +character of my old friend, John Brown. He +exhibited at all times the most affectionate +care for each of us. He also attended to the +cooking. We had two meals daily, consisting +of bread, baked in skillets; this was washed +down with creek water, mixed with a little +ginger and a spoon of molasses to each pint. +Nevertheless, we kept in excellent spirits; we +considered ourselves as one family, allied to +one another by the consciousness that it was +our duty to undergo all these privations for +the good cause. We were determined to share +any danger with one another, that victory or +death might find us together; and we were +united, as a band of brothers, by the love +and affection toward the man who with tender +words and wise counsel, in the depth of the +wilderness of Ottawa creek, prepared a handful +of young men for the work of laying the +foundation of a free commonwealth.</p> + +<p>“His words have ever remained firmly engraved +in my mind. Many and various were +the instructions he gave during the days of +our compulsory leisure in this camp. He expressed +himself to us that we should never allow +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>ourselves to be tempted by any consideration +to acknowledge laws and institutions to +exist if our conscience and reason condemned +them.</p> + +<p>“He admonished us not to care whether a +majority, no matter how large, opposed our +principles and opinions. The largest majorities +were sometimes only organized mobs, +whose howlings never changed black to white +or night into day. A minority convinced of +its rights, based on moral principles, would, +under a republican government, sooner or later +become the majority.”</p> + +<p>The other description is that of William A. +Phillips, then a correspondent of the New +York Tribune, and later a Colonel in the Civil +War. Brown, still an outlaw, was on his way +to Topeka, to be on hand at whatever crisis +might arise at the opening of the legislature +elected by the Free State settlers. Phillips +met him on the way.</p> + +<p>His account is important, for it shows that +John Brown saw much farther than his own +times. He knew that there were many other +things wrong with the social system in America +besides slavery. There are plain indications +here, as in other accounts, that John +Brown was one of those early American Socialists, +such as Horace Greeley, Albert Brisbane, +father of Arthur Brisbane, Bronson Alcott, +Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others, who +felt that the abolition of slavery was only the +first step toward a free America. Wendell +Phillips, for instance, one of this abolitionist +band, became after the Civil War one of the +leading champions of the rights of workingmen +in their battle against the capitalists.</p> + +<p>But here is Colonel Phillips giving his charming +picture, in the Atlantic Monthly for December, +1879, of that night ride and the conversation +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>he had with Brown as they lay +bivouacking in the open beneath the stars:</p> + +<p>“He seemed as little disposed to sleep as I +was, and we talked; or rather, he did, for I +said little. I found that he was a thorough +astronomer; he pointed out the different constellations +and their movements. ‘Now,’ he +said, ‘it is midnight,’ as he pointed to the finger +marks of his great clock in the sky. The +whispering of the wind in the prairies was +full of voices to him, and the stars as they +shone in the firmament of God seemed to inspire +him. ‘How admirable is the symmetry of +the heavens; how grand and beautiful! Everything +moves in sublime harmony in the government +of God. Not so with us poor creatures. +If one star is more brilliant than others, +it is continually shooting in some erratic way +into space.’</p> + +<p>“He criticized both parties in Kansas. Of +the pro-slavery men he said that slavery besotted +everything, and made men more brutal +and coarse; nor did the Free State men escape +his sharp censure. He said we had many +true and noble men, but too many broken down +politicians from the older states, who would +rather pass resolutions than act, and who +criticized all who did real work.</p> + +<p>“A professional politician, he went on, you +could never trust; for even if he had convictions, +he was always ready to sacrifice his +principles for his advantage.</p> + +<p>“One of the most interesting things in Captain +Brown’s conversation that night, and one +that marked him as a thinker, was his treatment +of our forms of social and political life. +He thought society ought to be reorganized +on a less selfish basis; for while material interests +gained by competition for bread, men +and women lost much by it. He condemned +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>the sale of land as a chattel, and thought there +was an infinite number of wrongs to right +before society would be what it should be, +but that in our country slavery was the sum +of all villainies, and its abolition the first +essential work.”</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_GREAT_PLAN_EVOLVES"> + THE GREAT PLAN EVOLVES + </h2> +</div> + +<p>Much more can be written of this Kansas +period in John Brown’s life; a large bibliography +of Robin Hood literature has gathered +about it. John Brown, and other men like +him, hastened the solution of the slavery question +by their firm stand in Kansas. If the +South had been allowed to add Kansas to the +roster of slave states, it would have crept +further north, until perhaps there would have +been slavery up to Canada. It is easy for any +institution to become permanent; man is a +creature of conventions. Slavery, like cannibalism +among savages, would have in time +become a matter-of-fact doctrine with all +America, had not the Kansas abolitionists +challenged it.</p> + +<p>John Brown left Kansas in 1857, and made +a trip through New England, gathering friends, +money, arms and recruits for a new great plan +that was working in his mind.</p> + +<p>He saw that the abolitionists would be successful +in making Kansas a free state. The +job was already half done; but when it was +completed, what next? There would still be +the vast groaning empire of slavery in the +South; there would still be five million black +folk bought and sold like cattle; beaten, raped, +murdered as if they were lower than cattle. +The South would still be in the saddle at the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>White House; the fugitive slave law would +still be enforced; and churches, business men, +newspapers, mobs, and United States troops, +all would join in upholding the devil’s doctrine +that slavery was respectable, the law +of the land.</p> + +<p>The Abolitionists, with their few journals, +were ever agitating against this infamy that +was being protected by the United States flag. +But John Brown knew that only a bold deed +could shake the union; could make men see +clearly what slavery was.</p> + +<p>Slavery had become so firmly settled into +the national life that the few thousand abolitionists +only seemed like gadflies biting at the +hide of a rhinoceros. John Brown saw that +a pick-axe was needed to draw the blood. The +pocket-books of the slave-holders must be attacked. +Slavery must be sabotaged, and made +unprofitable. It was such a safe and sane +business now; it must be made dangerous. +John Brown planned to go boldly into Virginia, +with a band of men, and start there a +large movement of runaway slaves. When +slaves were no longer meek and submissive, +when every slave became a potential runaway +and rebel, slavery would cease to be a paying +business. Thus reasoned John Brown.</p> + +<p>In December, 1858, with things at last peaceful +in Kansas Territory, and a Free State almost +assured, John Brown made a last stirring +raid into Missouri. A Negro slave named +Jim Daniels had come to one of Brown’s men +with a pathetic tale. He and his wife and +babies were to be sold at auction in a few +weeks, and perhaps separated forever. He +was a fine-looking, intelligent mulatto, and +he wept as he told the story. John Brown and +ten of his men rescued Daniels’ little family +and carried off to freedom eleven other <ins id="slaves" title="Original has 'slave'">slaves</ins> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>of the vicinity. At dawn the next day the +caravan of freedom set forth on its long journey +to the Northern Star—to Canada, where +slaves were free. It was a perilous and arduous +undertaking. The party had to sleep by +stealth in barns and icy fields, with armed +sentinels posted all night. The Governor of +Missouri wired to Washington; money rewards +were offered for Brown, armed posses were +sent searching for him, the Federal troops +combed the state. There were prairie snowstorms, +and there were little provisions. But +the old lion brought his charges through to +Canada.</p> + +<p>One incident of the trip is worth repeating. +It shows what a terror the mere name of John +Brown had become in Kansas.</p> + +<p>At one place, the ford of a river, Brown’s +party learned there was a posse of 80 armed +slavery ruffians waiting to capture him. The +old man did not turn back, though he had +only 22 men, black and white. He marched +down on the ruffians. “They had as good a +position as 80 men could wish,” wrote one of +Brown’s men, “they could have defeated a +thousand opponents, but the closer we got to +the ford, the farther they got from it. We +found some of their horses, for they were in +such haste to fly that some of them mounted +two on a saddle, and we gave chase and took +three or four prisoners, whom we later released. +The marshal who led them went so +fast one would think he feared the fate of +Lot’s wife.”</p> + +<p>“Old Captain Brown is not to be taken by +boys,” said the Leavenworth Times, now Free +State, “and he invites cordially all pro-slavery +men to try their hands at arresting him.”</p> + +<p>On March 12th the slaves were safe in Canada, +rejoicing in their happy fortune, after +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>having been brought in the dead of winter, +through hostile country, some 1,100 miles in +82 days. One of the slave women had had +six masters, and four of the party had served +sixteen owners in all. Now they were free. +And their little children were free, and would +never be whipped by a Southern gentleman, +or stood on the auction block like a horse or +cow. The outlaw John Brown had done what +was forbidden by the Supreme Court and the +President of the United States; and now he +was planning greater deeds.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_EVE_OF_THE_TRAGEDY"> + THE EVE OF THE TRAGEDY + </h2> +</div> + +<p>John Brown was now fifty-nine years old, +and in the last year of his life. He had been +disciplined in a terrible school in Kansas, but +what he was about to attempt seemed so mad, +so reckless, and so suicidally brave that many +men of the South claimed, after the attempt, +that he was but an insane man, and many +of his conservative friends chose to take this +view of the case, also.</p> + +<p>Yet John Brown was not insane. <ins id="Coolly" title="Original has 'Cooly'">Coolly</ins>, +rationally, like a clear-headed strategist, he +had figured out the situation. He was an +Abolitionist, and was determined to do anything +to end the brutal slave-system. Peaceful +agitation had been going on for decades, +but the North was still apathetic, and the +South was only more inflamed and settled in +its ideas.</p> + +<p>What John Brown felt was needed now, +was to make the men of the North and the +South realize that there would be no peace +in the land while slavery endured. What they +must see was that men like himself would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>rise to break that loathsome peace. He would +go to the South, capture the arsenal at Harper’s +Ferry, in Virginia, and run off all the +slaves he could find. He would take the +hills about the Ferry, and with a guerrilla +band move through the countryside, making +slavery a shaky institution.</p> + +<p>If he failed, he could but lose his life. He +would at least stir the nation on the issue of +slavery, and force men to take sides. There +was too much neutrality and silence in the +land on this issue, this institution that to him +was a bloody crime against God and humanity. +He could not fail, he felt; success or failure +would achieve the same results. Events proved +that he was right.</p> + +<p>John Brown spent that winter and spring in +New England, giving occasional lectures, and +meeting all the leading men of the Abolition +movement, who collected money for him, +though he did not fully reveal his plans to anyone.</p> + +<p>George L. Stearns, Gerrit Smith, the philanthropist, +Frank B. Sanborn, the Concord school-master +and author; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, +a brave, noble commander in the Civil +War, and a charming man of letters afterward; +Theodore Parker, one of the greatest and most +sincere Christian clergymen produced in America; +Samuel G. Howe, and others were among +John Brown’s supporters. Thoreau and Emerson +he also met at various times, and both were +passionate admirers of the stern, pure soldier +of liberty.</p> + +<p>While their Captain was gathering arms and +money for the raid, some of Brown’s men were +quartered in a farm-house near Harper’s Ferry, +while others were studying the region, and +mapping out routes for the attack and the retreat +to the hills.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p> + +<p>It was a cool fall night, the 16th of October, +1859, when Captain John Brown gave the command +his men had been impatiently awaiting +for months: “Men, get on your arms; we +will proceed to the Ferry.” Says Mr. Villard, at +times an eloquent chronicler:</p> + +<p>“It took but a minute to bring the horse and +wagon to the door, to place in it some pikes, +fagots, a sledge hammer, and a crow-bar. The +men had been in readiness for hours; they had +but to buckle on their arms and throw over +their shoulders, like army blankets, the long +gray shawls which served some for a few brief +hours in lieu of overcoats, and then became +their winding sheets. In a moment more, the +commander-in-chief donned his old battle-worn +Kansas cap, mounted the wagon, and began the +solemn march through the chill night to the +bridge into Harper’s Ferry, nearly six miles +away.</p> + +<p>“Tremendous as the relief of action was, there +was no thought of cheering or demonstration. +As the eighteen men with John Brown swung +down the little lane to the road from the farm-house +that had been their prison for so many +weary weeks, they bade farewell to Captain +Owen Brown, and Privates Barclay Coppoc and +F. J. Meriam, who remained as rear-guard in +charge of the arms and supplies. The brothers +Coppoc read the future correctly, for they embraced +and parted as men do who know they +are to meet no more on earth. The damp, lonely +night, too, added to the solemnity of it all, +as they passed through its gloom. As if to intensify +the sombreness, they met not a living +soul on the road to question their purpose, or +to start with fright at the sight of eighteen +soldierly men coming two by two through the +darkness as though risen from the grave.</p> + +<p>“There was not a sound but the tramping +of the men and the creaking of the wagon, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>before which, in accordance with a general order, +drawn up and carefully read to all, walked +Captains Cook and Tidd, their Sharp’s rifles +hung from their shoulders, their commission, +duly signed by John Brown, and officially +sealed, in their pockets. They were detailed to +destroy the telegraph wire on the Maryland +side, and then on the Virginian, while Captains +John H. Kagi and Aaron D. Stevens, +bravest of the brave, were to take the bridge +watchman and so strike the first blow for liberty. +But as they and their comrades marched +rapidly over the rough road, Death himself +moved by their side.”</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_ARSENAL_IS_CAPTURED"> + THE ARSENAL IS CAPTURED + </h2> +</div> + +<p>Events flashed sharp and terrible and swift +as lightning after this sombre opening of the +storm. The telegraph wires were cut, the watchman +at the bridge captured, guards were placed +at the two bridges leading out of the town, +and many citizens were taken from the streets +and held as prisoners in the Arsenal.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the most distinguished prisoner was +Colonel Lewis W. Washington, a great-grand-nephew +of the first President, and like him, a +gentleman farmer and slave-owner. He lived +five miles from the Ferry, and with the instinct +of a dramatist, John Brown seized him and +freed his slaves as a means of impressing on +the American imagination that a new revolution +for human rights was being ushered in.</p> + +<p>The little town was peaceful and unprepared +for this sudden attack, as unprepared as it +would be today for a similar raid. By morning, +however, the alarm had been spread; the church +bells rang, military companies from Charlestown +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>and other neighboring towns began pouring +in, the saloons were crowded with nervous +and hard-drinking men, and there was the +clamor and furor of thousands of awe-struck +Southerners. No one knew how many men were +in the Arsenal. No one knew whether the whole +South was not being attacked by abolitionists, +or whether or not all the slaves had armed and +risen against their masters, as they had attempted +to years before in Nat Turner’s and +other rebellions.</p> + +<p>By noon the Southerners had begun the attack. +They killed or drove out all the guards +John Brown had stationed at various strategic +points in the town; they murdered two of +Brown’s men they had taken prisoners, and tortured +another. They managed to cut off all of +Brown’s paths of retreat, and by nightfall, he +and the few survivors of his men were in a +trap.</p> + +<p>His young son Oliver, only twenty years old, +and recently married, died in the night. He +had been painfully wounded, and begged, in his +agony, that his father shoot him and relieve +him from pain. But the old Spartan held his +boy’s hand, and told him to be calm, and to +die like a man. Another young son, Watson, +had been killed earlier in the fighting. John +Brown had now given three sons to freedom, +and was soon himself to be a sacrifice.</p> + +<p>There were left alive and unwounded but +five of Brown’s men. The Virginia militia, +numbering, with the civilians in the town, up to +the thousands, seemed afraid to attack this little +group of desperate men. In the dawn of +the next morning, however, United States marines, +under the famous commander, Robert E. +Lee, then a Colonel in the Federal forces, attacked +the arsenal and captured it easily. John +Brown refused to surrender to the last; and he +stood waiting proudly for the marines when +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>they broke down the door and came raging +like tigers at him.</p> + +<p>A fierce young Southern officer ran at him +with a sword, that bent double as it pierced +to the old man’s breast-bone. The young Southerner +then took the bent weapon in his hands +and beat Brown’s head unmercifully with the +hilt, bringing the blood, and knocking senseless +the old unselfish and tender champion of poor +Negro men and women. Those near him thought +John Brown was dead; but he was still alive; +he had still his greatest work to do.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="JOHN_BROWNS_MEN"> + JOHN BROWN’S MEN + </h2> +</div> + +<p>I have written almost entirely of John Brown, +and because of necessities of space I have given +little attention to the brave youths who fought +under him at Harper’s Ferry. Yet here I must +stop and with only the facts, paint some portrait +of the men who followed John Brown. +It will be seen that they were no ordinary ruffians, +no bandits, adventurers or madmen, as +the South called them at the time. They were +young crusaders, thoughtful, sensitive and +brave. They had a philosophy of life; and they +were filled with passion for social justice. One +may disagree with such men, but one must not +fail to respect them.</p> + +<p>There were twenty-one men with John Brown +at Harper’s Ferry, sixteen of whom were white +and five colored. Only one was of foreign birth; +nearly all were of old American pioneer stock.</p> + +<p><i>John Henry Kagi</i> was the best educated of +the raiders, largely self-taught, a fine debater +and speaker, and an able correspondent for the +New York Tribune and the New York Evening +Post. He had been a school-teacher in Virginia, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>and had come to know and hate slavery there, +protesting so vigorously that he was finally +run out of the State. He practised law in Nebraska, +but left this to join John Brown in +the Kansas fighting. He was killed at Harper’s +Ferry.</p> + +<p><i>Aaron Dwight Stevens</i> was in many ways +the most attractive and interesting of the personalities +about John Brown. He ran away +from his home in Massachusetts at the age of +sixteen, and joined the United States army, +serving in Mexico during the Mexican War. +Later he was sentenced to death for leading a +soldiers’ mutiny against an offensive pro-slavery +Major at Taos, New Mexico. President Pierce +commuted the sentence to three years at hard +labor in Fort Leavenworth. Stevens escaped +from this prison, and joined the Free State +forces in Kansas, for he had always been a +firm abolitionist. Stevens came of old Puritan +stock, his great-grandfather having been a captain +in the Revolutionary War. He was a man +of superb bravery and of wonderful physique; +well over six feet, handsome, with black penetrating +eyes and a fine brow. He had a charming +sense of humor, and a beautiful baritone +voice, with which he sang in camp and in +prison. He was hung soon after John Brown +for the Harper’s Ferry raid.</p> + +<p><i>John E. Cook</i> was a young law student of +Brooklyn, New York, a reckless, impulsive and +rather indiscreet youth, to whom much was +forgiven because of his genial smile and generous +nature.</p> + +<p><i>Charles Plummer Tidd</i> escaped after the raid, +and died a First Sergeant in one of the battles +of the Civil War. He had not much education, +but good common sense, and was always reading +and studying in an attempt to repair his +lack of training. Quick-tempered, but kindhearted, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>a fine singer and with strong family +affections.</p> + +<p><i>Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson</i>, killed at Harper’s +Ferry in his 27th year, was also of Revolutionary +American stock. A sworn abolitionist, +he wrote in a letter three months before his +death: “Millions of fellow-beings require it of +us; their cries for help go out to the universe +daily and hourly. Whose duty is it to help +them? Is it yours? Is it mine? It is every +man’s, but how few there are to help. But there +are a few to answer this call, and dare to answer +it in a manner that shall make this land +of liberty and equality shake to the center.”</p> + +<p><i>Albert Hazlett</i>, executed after Brown, was a +Pennsylvania farm worker, “a good-sized, fine-looking +fellow, overflowing with good nature +and social feelings.”</p> + +<p><i>Edwin Coppoc</i>, also one of those captured +and hung, was well-liked even by the Southerners +who saw him in jail, and some of them +hoped to get him pardoned. He came of Quaker +farmer stock.</p> + +<p><i>Barclay Coppoc</i>, his brother, was not yet twenty-one +when he fought at the Arsenal. He escaped +after the raid, but was killed in the Civil +War. After the raid he had returned to Kansas, +and had nearly lost his life in an attempt +to free some slaves in Missouri.</p> + +<p><i>William Thompson</i>, a neighbor of the Browns +at North Elba, in New York, was killed at Harper’s +Ferry, in his 26th year. He was full of +fun and good nature, and bore himself unflinchingly +when face to face with death.</p> + +<p><i>Dauphin Osgood Thompson</i>, his brother, was +only twenty years old, when he met the same +fate for the cause of freedom. Dauphin was a +handsome, inexperienced country boy, “more +like a shy young girl than a warrior, quiet and +good,” said one of the Brown women later.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span></p> + +<p><i>Oliver Brown</i>, John Brown’s youngest son, +was also twenty years old when he died at +Harper’s Ferry. His girl-wife and her baby +died early the next year. “Oliver developed +rather slowly,” says Miss Sarah Brown. “In +his earlier teens he was always pre-occupied, +absent-minded—always reading, and then it was +impossible to catch his attention. But in his +last few years he came out very fast. His awkwardness +left him. He read every solid book +that he could find, and was especially fond of +Theodore Parker’s writings, as was his father. +Had Oliver lived, and not killed himself with +over-study, he would have made his mark. By +his exertions the sale of liquor was stopped at +North Elba.”</p> + +<p><i>John Anthony Copeland</i>, a free colored man, +25 years old, was educated at Oberlin College. +He was dignified and manly, and in jail there +were prominent Southerners who were forced +to admit his fine qualities. He was hung for +the raid.</p> + +<p><i>Stewart Taylor</i>, the only one of the raiders +not of American birth, was a young Canadian +wagon-maker, 23 years old. He was fond of +history and debating, and heart and soul in +the abolition cause. Killed in the Arsenal.</p> + +<p><i>William H. Leeman</i>, the youngest of the raiders, +killed in his 19th year. He had gone to +work in a shoe factory at Haverhill, Mass., when +only 14 years old, and though with little education, +“had a good intellect and great ingenuity.” +He was the “wildest” of Brown’s men, for +he smoked and drank occasionally, but the +Old Puritan captain liked him, nevertheless, for +he was boyish, handsome, and brave.</p> + +<p><i>Osborn Perry Anderson</i> was also a Negro. +He escaped after the raid, and fought through +the Civil War.</p> + +<p><i>Francis Jackson Meriam</i>, was a wealthy, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>young abolitionist who put all his fortune into +the cause, and came from New England to +join John Brown in the raid. He escaped also, +and died in 1865, after having been the captain +of a Negro company in the Civil War.</p> + +<p><i>Lewis Sheridan Leary</i>, colored, left a wife and +a six-months-old baby at Oberlin, Ohio, to go +to Harper’s Ferry. He was a harness maker +by trade, and descended on one side from an +Irishman, Jeremiah O’Leary, who fought in the +Revolution. Leary was 25 years old when he +died of his terrible wounds in the Arsenal +fighting.</p> + +<p><i>Owen Brown</i>, another of John Brown’s sons, +was stalwart and reliable, and is reported +original in expression and thought, like all the +Browns. He is also said to have been quite +humorous. He survived the raid, and died in +Pasadena, Calif., in 1891.</p> + +<p><i>Watson Brown</i>, another son, 24 years old +when killed at the Ferry, was tall and rather +fair, very strong, and a man of marked ability +and sterling character.</p> + +<p><i>Dangerfield Newby</i> was born a slave in Virginia, +but his father, a Scotchman, freed him +with other mulatto children. Newby had a wife +and seven children still in slavery, and he was +trying to raise money to buy them, for they +were to be sold further south. He failed at this; +and joined John Brown in desperation. He was +killed at the Ferry, and so failed to free his +poor family, as he had dreamed.</p> + +<p><i>Shields Green</i>, colored, was also born a slave, +but escaped, leaving a little son in slavery. +He met Brown through Frederick Douglass, +the great Negro orator, and joined in the raid, +though many warned him it would mean his +death. He was uneducated, but deeply emotional, +and deeply attached to the “ole man,” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>as he called John Brown. He was hung after +the raid; his age 23.</p> + +<p>They were all young men; the average age +of the band was 25 years and five months. +They were all strong, intelligent, in love with +life and eager for the future; but they chose +to attempt this mad, dangerous deed rather than +consent any longer to the lie and to the power +of black slavery.</p> + +<p>John Brown they followed and loved as one +would a strong and kindly father. There was +always something patriarchal about John +Brown and his soldiers, many observers said. It +made his deed seem like some story out of the +Bible, the swift and terrible Justice of the Lord +of Hosts.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_NIGGER-THIEF"> + THE “NIGGER-THIEF” + </h2> +</div> + +<p>When the South heard of John Brown’s raid, +there was a wave of immediate fury. Men +poured by the thousands into the little Virginia +town, and the bars were filled with savage, half-drunk +men, who talked of lynching the “old +nigger-thief.” Governor Wise had come down +from the capital, and he and others prevented +any such disgraceful procedure. He himself +was mystified by the raid. It seemed an incredible +performance, for these Southerners +could not understand the moral passion that +animated the Abolitionists. To the south Negroes +were property—private property. And an +attempt to free slaves was to them insane, illegal +and criminal. When men came with arms +for this purpose and Southerners were killed in +defending slavery, the crime became doubly +damnable.</p> + +<p>John Brown, after his capture, was taken with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>Aaron Stevens to a room nearby. Lying on a +cot, his head bandaged, his hair clotted and tangled, +hands and clothing powder-stained and +blood-smeared, the old lion was questioned by +Governor Wise and a party of officials, who +included Robert E. Lee, Colonel J. E. B. Stuart, +Senator Mason, Congressman Vallandigham of +Ohio, and other pro-slaveryites.</p> + +<p>Their questions were a summary of the attitude +of the South to such as he. And John +Brown, though he was wounded and a prisoner, +though everywhere enemies surrounded him, +and the gallows stared him full in the face, +answered their questions calmly and courteously, +without the slightest show of fear.</p> + +<p>“Who sent you here?” one official asked. +They were trying to worm out the names of +Northerners who had given Brown money for +the raid, so as to prosecute them for conspiracy +in murder.</p> + +<p>“No man sent me here,” John Brown answered +calmly. “It was my own prompting, and +that of my Maker, or that of the devil, which +ever you please. I acknowledge no man in human +form.”</p> + +<p>“What was your object in coming?”</p> + +<p>“I came to free the slaves.”</p> + +<p>“And you think you were acting righteously?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I think, my friends, you are guilty of +a great wrong, against God and humanity. I +think it right to interfere with you to free +those you hold in bondage. I hold that the +Golden Rule applies to the slaves, too.”</p> + +<p>“And do you mean to say you believe in the +Bible?” some one said, incredulously. They +could not understand this man; they only saw +a wild, mad “nigger-thief” in him.</p> + +<p>“Certainly I do,” John Brown said with dignity.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span></p> + +<p>“Don’t you know you are a seditionist, a +traitor, and that you have taken up arms +against the United States government?”</p> + +<p>“I was trying to free the slaves. I have tried +moral suasion for this purpose, but I don’t think +the people in the slave states will ever be convinced +they are wrong.”</p> + +<p>“You are mad and fanatical.”</p> + +<p>“And I think you people of the South are +mad and fanatical. Is it sane to keep five million +men in slavery? Is it sane to think such +a system can last? Is it sane to suppress all +who would speak against this system, and to +murder all who would interfere with it? Is it +sane to talk of war rather than give it up?”</p> + +<p>Thus John Brown uttered his challenge to the +South; but they failed to understand.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TRIAL_AT_CHARLESTOWN"> + THE TRIAL AT CHARLESTOWN + </h2> +</div> + +<p>And they failed to understand that it was +not he who was on trial at the Charlestown +court-house a month later, but the whole +slavery system.</p> + +<p>Every moment of that trial was reported in +the newspapers of the nation. Every reader in +America knew of the wonderful strength and +majesty of John Brown in the court-room. The +North began thinking about slavery as it had +never thought before. John Brown was so manifestly +pure in his intentions; manifestly a crusader, +and people were forced to try to understand +why an old, gray-haired farmer should +have taken up arms at the age of sixty, after +a life spent in useful occupations.</p> + +<p>His dignity, his piety, his reputation as a terrible +fighter, and the Biblical sublimity of the +picture of this white-bearded patriarch surrounded +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>by his seven sons, all of them armed +with rifles, all of them ready to die for the +cause of abolition—these had their powerful +effect on the imagination of the North. Hosts of +new friends rose up in Brown’s defense; legislatures +passed resolutions asking for his pardon, +Congressmen began speaking out, newspapers +suddenly found <ins id="themselves" title="Original has 'themelves'">themselves</ins> in danger of +losing their subscribers if they spoke against +John Brown; everywhere in the North men +found themselves waking from a dream, and +coming into the clear, white vision of John +Brown. They saw slavery as if for the first +time in all its horrors; they could not help +taking sides. And the South became more and +more inflamed with rage as the trial progressed, +and those reverberations reached it from the +North.</p> + +<p>John Brown was tried on three charges, murder, +treason, and inciting the slaves to rebellion. +The trial was quickly over; it was but a +formality. The jury, of course, returned the +verdict of guilty, and John Brown, lying on his +cot in the court-room, said not a word, but +turned quietly over on his side, when he heard +it.</p> + +<p>A few days later, Judge Parker pronounced +the sentence of death, and this time John Brown +rose from his cot, and drawing himself up to +his full stature, with flashing eagle eyes, and +calm, clear and distinct tones, he addressed the +citizens of America. He said many things that +they were soon to understand clearly on the +battlefields of the Civil War.</p> + +<p>“Had I taken up arms in behalf of the rich, +the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, +or in behalf of any of their friends, or any of +their class, every man in this court would have +deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than +of punishment. But this Court acknowledges +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span>the validity of the law of God. I see a book +kissed here which is the Bible, and which +teaches me that all things that I would have +men do unto me, so must I do unto them. I +endeavored to act up to that instruction. I +fought for the poor; and I say it was right, for +they are as good as any of you; God is no respecter +of persons.</p> + +<p>“I believe that to have interfered as I have +done, as I have always freely admitted I have +done, in behalf of His despised poor, I did no +wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary +that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance +of the ends of justice, and mingle my +blood further with the blood of my children, +and with the blood of millions in this slave +country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, +cruel and unjust enactments, I say, let it be +done.”</p> + +<p>Judge Parker fixed the date for hanging on +December 2nd, 1859, a month away. It was a +fatal mistake for the South, and John Brown’s +finest gift at the hands of the God he believed +in.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_AGITATOR_IN_JAIL"> + THE AGITATOR IN JAIL + </h2> +</div> + +<p>For in that month, John Brown accomplished +more for abolition than even the stern deeds +of Kansas had effected. He had put by the +sword forever, and now for a month took up +the pen and made it as powerful a weapon. He +wrote innumerable letters to Northern friends +and they were published and read everywhere. +Their tone was Christ-like; no longer was Brown +the militant Captain in the field, but the sweet, +patient martyr waiting for his end in tranquil +joy. In many letters he repeats the statement +that he is glad to die; that his death is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>of more value to the cause than ever his life +could have been. This was no vainglorious +hysterical gesture with John Brown; he was +calmly certain of it; he slept peacefully as a +child at night, and wrote his letters by day, +secure in his tranquil wisdom. Friends were +planning an attempt to rescue him, but he forbade +them to try, for he really felt that his +death was necessary. “I am worth now infinitely +more to die, than to live,” he said.</p> + +<p>And in his letters he gave Americans his last +warning on the slavery question. He told them +it must be settled; it could not go on. His letters +were so strong, manly, and yet so touching, +that even the jailor wept as he censored +them in the course of his duties. As Wendell +Phillips said, the million hearts of his countrymen +had been melted by that old Puritan soul.</p> + +<p>With absolute equanimity, John Brown wrote +his will, wrote his last few letters to his family, +determined the coffin in which he was to +be buried, and the inscription on the family +monument, said farewell to his fellow-prisoners +and jail-keepers. On the morning of December +2nd he stood calmly on the steps of the scaffold +and gazed about him. Before leaving his +cell he had handed to another prisoner the following +last and uncompleted message:</p> + +<p>“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that +the crimes of this guilty land will never be +purged away but with blood. I had, as I now +think, vainly flattered myself that without +much bloodshed it might be done.”</p> + +<p>Now, as he looked about, he could see massed +beyond the fifteen hundred soldiers Virginia +had felt necessary for this execution, the hazy +outlines of the Blue Ridge mountains. The +sun was shining; the sky was blue, and his +heart was at peace. “This is a beautiful country,” +he said, “I never had the pleasure of really +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>seeing it before.” He walked with perfect composure +up the steps, watched by the eyes of the +soldiery and officialdom of slave-holding Virginia. +They saw not a tremor in his face or +body; not even when the cap was drawn over +his head, his arms pinioned at the elbows, the +noose slipped around his neck. He had refused +to have the solace of any ministers, for they +believed in slavery, and he told them he did +not regard them as Christians. He needed no +man’s solace; he was braver than any one +there. “Shall I give you the signal when the +trap is to be sprung?” said a friendly sheriff. +“No, no,” the serene old man answered, “just +get it over quickly.”</p> + +<p>And quickly enough, it was all over for John +Brown. The trap was sprung; his body hung +between heaven and earth. In the painful silence +that followed, the voice of Colonel Preston +declaimed solemnly, the official epitaph, +“So perish all such enemies of Virginia! All +such enemies of the Union! All such foes of +the human race!”</p> + +<p>That was the verdict of the South, still infatuated +and blinded by its slave system. But +on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line men +were pronouncing a different verdict on John +Brown, and on the other side of the Atlantic, +the greatest man of letters in Europe, Victor +Hugo, was saying:</p> + +<p>“In killing Brown, the Southern States have +committed a crime which will take its place +among the calamities of history. The rupture of +the Union will fatally follow the assassination +of Brown. As for John Brown, he was an +apostle and a hero. The gibbet has only increased +his glory, and made him a martyr.”</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="HIS_SOUL_GOES_MARCHING_ON"> + HIS SOUL GOES MARCHING ON + </h2> +</div> + +<p>John Brown was hung on December 2, 1859. +Exactly eleven months later Abraham Lincoln +was elected President of the United States. +Exactly eight months after that, Northern +troops were marching southward, to put down +the rebellion of the slave states that had hung +Brown.</p> + +<p>No one at the time believed events would +march so swiftly after Brown’s death. There +were many who knew that some sort of conflict +between the North and South was inevitable; +it had been brewing for decades. But +there were as many more who were confident +that slavery would win its legal fight, and +would spread over the whole continent. And +the great mass of Americans just faintly understood +the issues involved; to most of them, +John Brown seemed some kind of mad fanatic.</p> + +<p>President Lincoln’s election undoubtedly +provoked the Civil War. And his election +was undoubtedly due to the discussion on slavery +that raged after John Brown’s deed. Lincoln +was the first Northerner to be elected +in forty years; the South had always carried +things before it, and would have done so again +had not John Brown roused the entire North +to a consciousness of what slavery meant.</p> + +<p>He did more than all the abolitionists had +been able to do in their fifty years of agitation.</p> + +<p>And yet even most of his friends thought +him mad at the time of the deed. Abraham +Lincoln, in a campaign speech at Cooper +Union, in New York, said: “Old John Brown +has been executed for treason against a state. +We cannot object, even though he agreed with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot +excuse violence, bloodshed and treason.”</p> + +<p>Only men of the stamp of Wendell Phillips +fully understood what John Brown had done. +His funeral oration at the last resting place +of John Brown’s body had all the vision of +the prophets:</p> + +<p>“Marvelous old man!... He has abolished +slavery in Virginia. You may say that this is +too much. Our neighbors are the very last +men we know. The hours that pass us are +the ones we appreciate the least. Men walked +Boston streets, when night fell on Bunker +Hill, and pitied Warren, saying, ‘Foolish man! +Thrown away his life! Why didn’t he measure +his means better?’ Now we see him standing +colossal on that blood-stained sod, and +severing that day the tie which bound Boston +to Great Britain. That night George III ceased +to rule in New England. History will date +Southern emancipation from Harper’s Ferry. +True, the slave is still there. So, when the +tempest uproots a pine in your hills, it looks +green for months, for a year. Still, it is timber, +not a tree. John Brown has loosened the +roots of the slave system; it only breathes—it +does not live—hereafter.”</p> + +<p>Wendell Phillips was a prophet; and even +men of wide vision like Lincoln could not attain +his lofty view. At first there was a rush +of Northern politicians to disavow and condemn +John Brown’s deed. Later, there was +approval; still later understanding; still later, +worship.</p> + +<p>Yes, the old man seemed mad, as all pioneers +are mad. Gorky has called it the madness of +the brave. But such madness seems necessary +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>to the world; the world would sink into a bog +of respectable tyranny and stagnation were +there not these fresh, strong, ruthless tempests +to keep the waters of life in motion.</p> + +<p>Who knows but that some time in America +the John Browns of today will be worshipped +in like manner? The outlaws of today, the +unknown soldiers of freedom.</p> + +<p>“And his soul goes marching on.”</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<div class="tnote"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_note"> + Transcriber’s Note: + </h2> + +<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p> + +<p>Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.</p> + +<p>Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following changes:</p> + +<table class="autotable"> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#World">6</a>: "civilization in the New world"</td> +<td class="tdl">"civilization in the New World"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#occurred">12</a>: "a circumstance occured"</td> +<td class="tdl">"a circumstance occurred"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#thirty-fifth">20</a>: "his thirty-fith"</td> +<td class="tdl">"his thirty-fifth"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#every_one">22</a>: "in communities where everyone"</td> +<td class="tdl">"in communities where every one"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#Osawatomie1">24</a>: "John Brown of Osawotamie"</td> +<td class="tdl">"John Brown of Osawatomie"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#Ruffians">25</a>: "most of the Border Ruffins"</td> +<td class="tdl">"most of the Border Ruffians"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#Osawatomie2">26</a>: "settlement at Osawotamie"</td> +<td class="tdl">"settlement at Osawatomie"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#published">32</a>: "It publishe a newspaper"</td> +<td class="tdl">"It published a newspaper"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#Pottawatomie">34</a>: "on the Pottawotamie"</td> +<td class="tdl">"on the Pottawatomie"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#shotgun">34</a>: "he had a shot gun"</td> +<td class="tdl">"he had a shotgun"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#slaves">42</a>: "eleven other slave"</td> +<td class="tdl">"eleven other slaves"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#Coolly">44</a>: "not insane. Cooly"</td> +<td class="tdl">"not insane. Coolly"</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"></td> +<td class="tdl">Page <a href="#themselves">57</a>: "suddenly found themelves"</td> +<td class="tdl">"suddenly found themselves"</td> +</tr> + +</table> +</div> +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77258 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77258-h/images/cover.jpg b/77258-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2db886e --- /dev/null +++ b/77258-h/images/cover.jpg |
